Situation of the Shipping.
Nay, so high the winds blew, even before that we call the storm, that had not that intolerable tempest followed so soon after, we should have counted those winds extraordinary high: and any one may judge of the truth of this from these few particulars; that the Russia fleet, composed of near a hundred sail, which happened to be then upon the coast, was absolutely dispersed and scattered, some got into Newcastle, some into Hull, and some into Yarmouth roads; two foundered in the sea; one or two more run ashore, and were lost; and the reserve frigate, their convoy, foundered in Yarmouth roads, all her men being lost, and no boat from the shore durst go off to relieve her, though it was in the day time, but all her men perished.
In the same previous storms the —— man-of-war was lost off of Harwich; but by the help of smaller vessels most of her men were saved.
And so high the winds blew for near a fortnight, that no ship stirred out of harbour; and all the vessels, great or small, that were out at sea, made for some port or other for shelter.
In this juncture of time it happened, that together with the Russia fleet, a great fleet of laden colliers, near 400 sail, were just put out of the river Tyne: and these being generally deep and unwieldly ships, met with hard measure, though not so fatal to them as was expected; such of them as could run in for the Humber, where a great many were lost afterwards, as I shall relate in its course; some got shelter under the high lands of Cromer and the northern shores of the county of Norfolk, and the greater number reached into Yarmouth roads.
So that when the great storm came, our ports round the sea-coast of England were exceeding full of Ships of all sorts; a brief account whereof take as follows:—
At Grimsby, Hull, and the other roads of the Humber, lay about 80 sail, great and small, of which about 50 were colliers, and part of the Russia fleet as aforesaid.
In Yarmouth roads there rode at least 400 sail, being most of them laden colliers, Russia-men, and coasters from Lynn and Hull.
In the River Thames, at the Nore, lay about 12 sail of the Queen’s hired ships and storeships, and only two men-of-war.
Sir Cloudesly Shovel was just arrived from the Mediterranean with the Royal Navy: part of them lay at St Helens, part in the Downs, and with 12 of the biggest ships he was coming round the Foreland to bring them into Chatham; and when the great storm begun was at an anchor at the Gunfleet, from whence the association was driven off from sea as far as the coast of Norway; what became of the rest, I refer to a chapter by itself.
At Gravesend, there rode five East India-men, and about 30 sail of other merchantmen, all outward bound.
In the Downs 160 sail of merchant ships outward bound, besides that part of the fleet which came in with Sir Cloudesly Shovel, which consisted of about 18 men-of-war, with tenders and victuallers.
At Portsmouth and Cowes, there lay three fleets; first a fleet of transports and tenders, who with Admiral Dilks brought the forces from Ireland that were to accompany the king of Spain to Lisbon; secondly, a great fleet of victuallers, tenders, store-ships, and transports, which lay ready for the same voyage, together with about 40 merchant-ships, who lay for the benefit of their convoy; and the third article was, the remainder of the grand fleet which came in with Sir Cloudesly Shovel; in all almost 300 sail, great and small.
In Plymouth Sound, Falmouth, and Milford Havens, were particularly several small fleets of merchant ships, driven in for shelter and harbour from the storm, most homeward bound from the Islands and Colonies of America.
The Virginia fleet, Barbadoes fleet, and some East India-men, lay scattered in all our ports, and in Kinsale, in Ireland, there lay near 80 sail, homeward bound and richly laden.
At Bristol, about 20 sail of home-bound West India-men, not yet unladen.
In Holland, the fleet of transports for Lisbon waited for the King of Spain, and several English men-of-war lay at Helvoet Sluice; the Dutch fleet from the Texel lay off of Cadsandt, with their forces on board, under the Admiral Callenberge. Both these fleets made 180 sail.
I think I may very safely affirm, that hardly in the memory of the oldest man living, was a juncture of time when an accident of this nature could have happened, that so much shipping, laden out and home, ever was in port at one time.
No man will wonder that the damages to this nation were so great, if they consider these unhappy circumstances: it should rather be wondered at, that we have no more disasters to account to posterity, but that the navigation of this country came off so well.
Ships adrift.
And therefore some people have excused the extravagancies of the Paris Gazetteer, who affirmed in print, that there was 80000 seamen lost in the several ports of England, and 300 sail of ships; which they say was a probable conjecture; and that considering the multitude of shipping, the openness of the roads in the Downs, Yarmouth, and the Nore, and the prodigious fury of the wind, any man would have guessed the same as he.
It is certain, it is a thing wonderful to consider, that especially in the Downs and Yarmouth roads anything should be safe: all men that know how wild a road the first is, and what crowds of ships there lay in the last; how almost everything quitted the road, and neither anchor nor cable would hold; must wonder what shift or what course the mariners could direct themselves to for safety.
Some which had not a mast standing, nor an anchor or cable left them, went out to sea wherever the winds drove them; and lying like a trough in the water, wallowed about till the winds abated; and after were driven some into one port, some into another, as Providence guided them.
In short, horror and confusion seized upon all, whether on shore or at sea: no pen can describe it; no tongue can express it; no thought conceive it, unless some of those who were in the extremity of it; and who, being touched with a due sense of the sparing mercy of their Maker, retain the deep impressions of his goodness upon their minds, though the danger be past: and of those I doubt the number is but few.
Of the Effects of the Storm.
The particular dreadful effects of this tempest, are the subject of the ensuing part of this history; and though the reader is not to expect that all the particulars can be put into this account, and perhaps many very remarkable passages may never come to our knowledge; yet as we have endeavoured to furnish ourselves with the most authentic accounts we could from all parts of the nation, and a great many worthy gentlemen have contributed their assistance in various, and some very exact relations and curious remarks; so we pretend, not to be meanly furnished for this work.
Some gentlemen, whose accounts are but of common and trivial damages, we hope will not take it ill from the author, if they are not inserted at large; for that we are willing to put in nothing here common with other accidents of like nature; or which may not be worthy of a history and a historian to record them; nothing but what may serve to assist in convincing posterity that this was the most violent tempest the world ever saw.
From hence it will follow, that those towns who only had their houses untiled, their barns and hovels levelled with the ground, and the like, will find very little notice taken of them in this account; because if these were to be the subject of a history, I presume it must be equally voluminous with Fox, Grimston, Holinshead, or Stow.
Nor shall I often trouble the reader with the multitude or magnitude of trees blown down, whole parks ruined, fine walks defaced, and orchards laid flat, and the like: and though I had, myself, the curiosity to count the number of trees, in a circuit I rode over most part of Kent, in which, being tired with the number, I left off reckoning after I had gone on to 17000; and though I have great reason to believe! did not observe one half of the quantity, yet in some parts of England, as in Devonshire especially, and the counties of Worcester, Gloucester,